image description — The ceremonial cornerstone at the new Williamstown Fire Station is set by, from left, Craig Pedercini, Ed Briggs, John Notsley and Chief Jeffrey Dias.

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Cornerstone Laid for New Williamstown Fire Station

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
12:33PM / Thursday, October 02, 2025Print Story | Email Story

Prudential Committee Chair David Moresi welcomes attendees on Thursday morning.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The continuity of the Williamstown Fire Department was on display Thursday morning as it hit another milestone in the construction of a new station on Main Street.

"We have John Notsley and Ed Briggs," Prudential Committee Chair David Moresi said at the laying of a ceremonial cornerstone for the new station.

"John's father attended and set the original cornerstone to the station on Water Street, our current station. And I cannot think of anything more fitting than to have John here as we set the cornerstone for the new fire station."

Both Notsley and Briggs, along with retired Chief Ed McGowan, laid the metaphorical cornerstone for the building project that the current Prudential Committee has overseen.

Those three, along with now retired Chief Craig Pedercini, did the literal groundwork: commissioning architectural studies, acquiring the parcel where the new building is being built and making the case to town residents why the current facility, built in 1950, is no longer serviceable.

Pedercini was elected to the five-member Prudential Committee in May, shortly after his retirement. He serves now alongside Notsley, the last remaining member of the three-person committee that set the district on the road to building a new station.

Notsley, Briggs, Pedercini and recently installed Chief Jeffrey Dias came together to lay the ceremonial marker, inscribed with the number 2025, at the corner of the new station, where its administrative wing meets the five-door apparatus bay.

"It's been a long time coming, but, in the end, the result is what we were looking for," Briggs said after the ceremony. "And I think it's important to the town to have an adequate station for the department."

Shortly after the ceremony, Briggs quipped to a bystander that he didn't think he would see the building project come to fruition.

Later, he expanded on that thought.

"I'm coming up on 90, so I'm lucky to be here," Briggs said. "And I'm happy to see the progress that's being made.

"I'm hoping to be here for the open house, the ribbon cutting and all that."

Moresi, after the stone was laid, said the "grand opening" of the new station probably won't come until after Jan. 1, though the department will make the move starting in December. With the energy needed to relocate the department and the crush of the holidays, it makes more sense to save the next ceremony until January at the earliest, though a date is yet to be determined, Moresi said.

Speaking of the energy needed to make the December move happen, Moresi was the only one to make any remarks — brief ones — during the cornerstone ceremony.

He was quick to transition from thoughts about the participants to a command to get the action going.

"With that, because we are on a timeline, we've got bricks going up today, we want to congratulate the Chief, the Prudential Committee, former Prudential Committee Briggs, and let's get that cornerstone set," Moresi said.

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Williamstown Studying Major Overhaul for Main Street

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:14AM / Wednesday, July 29, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The town is working with a Worcester civil engineering firm to redesign Main Street with an eye toward a major project sometime in the next decade.

Community Development Director Andrew Groff was before the Select Board on Monday night to talk about Town Hall's use of a $500,000 state grant to do preliminary design on major improvements to that portion of Route 2 that runs from Water Street west to the Field Park rotary, through the middle of Williams College's campus.

Groff introduced the elected officials to Amanda Bazinet of Worcester's Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, who is helping the town to develop a plan for Main Street that would align with the commonwealth's Complete Streets Program.

"Our project goals, in addition to the increased pedestrian and bicycle accommodations, is just, in general, improving the sightlines and improving the intersection geometry," Bazinet said.

"Complete Streets … has a lot of different facets to it. As Andrew had mentioned, the goal is to improve the safety for all of the roadway users — not just the motorists. We're looking at improving it for pedestrians, bicyclists, anyone using a mobility device. We want to create streets that are safe for all ages and abilities to use. So, while bicyclists will still be allowed, legally, to use the roadway, we want to look at providing a separate bicycle accommodation along the corridor, whether it's a shared use path along both sides of the streets that is a little more accessible to young children or older people with disabilities to look at all transportation options."

One goal is to encourage "active transportation." The Massachusetts Department of Transportation, who the town hopes one day might fund the construction, has a "healthy transportation policy," Bazinet said.

That MassDOT funding would come through the Transportation Improvement Program, which is managed locally by the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. The design work underway now is being done with an eye toward going after TIP funding years down the road.

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